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There are significant concern in Meath at the moment regarding player attrition between under 10 and under 16. There is an approximate 70% fall off of players with several teams unable to field at under 16 level.

Hound,
Just because Dublin are not automatically going to be at the top forever does not mean that a split shouldnt be considered.

Dublin's structures have improved massively in recent years and fair play to them. Those structures allied to the population indicates that Dublin will dominate well ino the future. The result in the minor final on Sunday was equally comprehensive.

I am not sure exactly about the number of full time coaches in Dublin but it is at least 10 times the level in other counties in Leinster.

It is a massive decision for the GAA to split Dublin but something needs to be done as we could well have another 5 years of Dublin winning Leinster.

I haven't seen it at all. I'm not interested in it. Just another spat on the field. I'm sure O'Gara doesn't go around biting people. I'm sure Mickey Burke doesn't go around sticking his finger in people's mouths. I'm only telling that clown to cop on.

Well said Hardy.

Newman is on course to be back. I very much doubt that Joey Wallace will feature against the Dubs.

Yes Hardy, terrible news about Conor Gillespie for tyhe chap himself, Summerhill and the county.

What is all the Meath led bashing of everything Louthish?

in retaliation I will now be supporting Louth, as my 2nd team, for the rest of the year. If they play Meath I may even bump them up to no.1 for the day.

not bashing everything Louthish, just the unmarked pitch, the long grass and the stoneage tactics. Anyway I think the point has been made.

Meath men complaining about 'targeting' players... the world has turned and left me here!

Of course I have seen Mick Lyons etc in action. I was a fan of Lyons, Darren Fay, Kevin Foley. I wasn't a fan of Colm Coyle who I said on several occasions shouldn't play for Meath again. There were a couple of occasions that I was not happy with the tactics employed by Cormac Murphy.

I assume that you weren't at the game. Last Sunday was incredible. I have never before seen a player that seemed to have express instructions to avoid the ball at all costs. If his teammates had the ball and they were starting an attack and he was in a position to get the ball and assist the attack he was completely uninterested and just looking to run over to Graham Reilly. It was naive, childish, Stone Age tactics and it was great to see Reilly get two well taken crucial scores in spite of this attention. Only thing is he succeeded in putting Reilly out of the game.

Tbh, I am no longer as well up on the rules but I would have thought that this behaviour must have been worthy of the black card but maybe not.

As this is a GAA forum I just had to make a comment about a couple of things from the game in the Gaelic Grounds in Drogheda.

1.  State of the Grounds / Pitch. We all know that Louth grounds have the smallest capacity in the country but I wasn't expecting a setup that would be embarrassing to a decent club team. The gates beside the stand were not open and everyone was channelled through one entrance.  Toilet facilities brough me back to the seventies. The so call terrace was a hill, similar to which is not even used in Navan.

2.  State of The Pitch: Unbelievable that  a NFL Div 2 game being played on a pitch not lined, flags useless as they were not upright and the grass too long. When this is coupled with a referee that couldn't keep up with the play it made for more dodgy decision making. I think that Meath should have refused to play on that pitch until it was lined.

3.  Stone Age Tactics: I hope that the few Louth supporters that were actually at the game were embarrassed at the tactics employed by Aidan O'Rourke in which a player was sent out to intimidate and obstruct Graham Reilly for the whole game and eventually kicked him to the extent that Graham Reilly was taken off injured. It was so pathetic that the guy (surname also Reilly) ran away from his teammates when they had the ball so that he could go over and stand in front of Reilly. He also stood on the water bottle sent in to Graham Reilly and didnt even stop his squaring up to him even after obviously injuring him and getting a yellow card.

If that is the philosophy of Louth football no wonder they are in Division 3 with the worst facilities in the country.

Let's hope that Meath can continue the upward trajectory and not have to play football low life like this in the coming years.

Target somebody? God forbid Meath would ever do that.

Any chance of an example where a Meath player played for the game the way that Louth marked G Reilly yesterday?

Thankfully it has been about 20 years since I was there and hopefully another 20 until I am there again. Think Brendan Reilly was targeted and stretchered off that day.

The gates beside the stand werent a big issue and, on their own arent worthy of a mention. The fact that they couldnt line the pitch does deserve mention. They should take a trip over to a few club grounds in Meath e.g. Trim, Ashbourne, Simonstown etc if they need lessons on how to prepare a pitch.

Lets hope for the decent GAA folk of Louth that  the Co. Board do work on getting themselves county grounds worthy of the name. The truth is that with the main roads that go through the county it would be an ideal venue for many play off matches involving Northern teams.

Regarding the tactics, I am glad to see that they were an embarassment, I am sure the player himself didnt want to ge doing that and then he was substituted after Reilly got injued.

As this is a GAA forum I just had to make a comment about a couple of things from the game in the Gaelic Grounds in Drogheda.

1.  State of the Grounds / Pitch. We all know that Louth grounds have the smallest capacity in the country but I wasn't expecting a setup that would be embarrassing to a decent club team. The gates beside the stand were not open and everyone was channelled through one entrance.  Toilet facilities brough me back to the seventies. The so call terrace was a hill, similar to which is not even used in Navan.

2.  State of The Pitch: Unbelievable that  a NFL Div 2 game being played on a pitch not lined, flags useless as they were not upright and the grass too long. When this is coupled with a referee that couldn't keep up with the play it made for more dodgy decision making. I think that Meath should have refused to play on that pitch until it was lined.

3.  Stone Age Tactics: I hope that the few Louth supporters that were actually at the game were embarrassed at the tactics employed by Aidan O'Rourke in which a player was sent out to intimidate and obstruct Graham Reilly for the whole game and eventually kicked him to the extent that Graham Reilly was taken off injured. It was so pathetic that the guy (surname also Reilly) ran away from his teammates when they had the ball so that he could go over and stand in front of Reilly. He also stood on the water bottle sent in to Graham Reilly and didnt even stop his squaring up to him even after obviously injuring him and getting a yellow card.

If that is the philosophy of Louth football no wonder they are in Division 3 with the worst facilities in the country.

Let's hope that Meath can continue the upward trajectory and not have to play football low life like this in the coming years.

Hi Hardy, it is pretty hard to watch at times. Not sure if it is totally the refs fault - team tactics have a part in it too.
Great that we pulled away in the end. It leaves the game vs Louth next week a dead rubber.

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Bad news for Eamonn, really feel for him. Hope that the ridiculous nature of GAA fixture making doesnt make him turn his back on the game.

I am none too happy with the scheduling and Mick O'Dowd has been giving out in this weeks chronicle about the amount of games the players have on......and this was before Eamonn's news.

Also, on the topic in hand someone needs a kick up the a$$ for scheduling the Laois game so that Meath supporters are travelling during the Ireland France rugby game which is one of the country's biggest sporting events of the year, especially in the year BOD is retiring.

I dont think that I will be renewing my season ticket next year.

That'd be fine, AZ if the hand in, the fair shoulder, etc. were not penalised more than half the time. The new rules are not being reffed any better than the old ones, as far as I can see, which simply confirms what we knew - the problem was not the rules but the refereeing. In fact, I think there's a new drive to be hard on defenders, with everyone, referees included, caught up in the enthusiasm for "free-flowing football" that's coming from all the hoo-ha about the new rules.

I haven't checked the numbers (but I will) but it seems clear already that scoring rates have soared in the league, with some ridiculous totals being run up. Most people actually seem to think that's a good thing. This has a self-reinforcing effect, in that it will be pointed to as proof that the new rules are working. Well, for me, defending is as integral a part of football as attacking. I'd be willing to bet, though, that the rate of frees being awarded is probably twice as high against defenders as against attackers in this new set-up.

Do we want to make our game even more like basketball than before? In that game, nearly every attack results in a score. The Harlem Globetrotters attract huge crowds wherever they go, with their brand of high scoring mixed with fancy tricks. In their shows, the defenders are only there to be the straight-men in the comedy routine. It's an exaggeration for effect, but I get the feeling our legislators have as little feel for the essence of Gaelic football as a Harlem Globetrotters audience has for sport.

Some interesting  points there Hardy. I think that one of the drawbacks of having a sport that is isolated within one country is that we have total control over the rules of the game within this country. I cannot remember changes to soccer rules in my lifetime, perhaps some changes to the offside rule. It is nearly too easy to make changes to the rules and sometimes they are welcome but we have to be really really careful. It is like in any organisation or business......do you change the rules or do you properly implement your existing rules when problems are evident.

I am not certain of the dynamic of the ways the various committees operate when reviewing the state of the game but I suspect that the discussions move very quickly towards new ways of doing things. I know that it is difficult to get motions through Congress but, just because a motion gets through Congress, that doesn't mean that it is correctly worked through.

I was on a national GAA committee reviewing sliothar standards and tests a number of years ago. We were told up front that as the GAA is an amateur organisation we weren't being paid for our time except for some university guy who was coming from the UK who was being paid. Thinking back I just wonder are the GAA professional in some ways but not identifying core issues in other ways.

I remember in a manufacturing company I used to work that when there were problems we used to say to go back to basics. I am not sure if the GAA ever really looks at going back to basics. Refereeing standards are so varied across the country. I couldn't believe the way the Tyrone guy took at least 8 steps in the lead up to the winning goal last weekend and there has been very little about it. In my opinion the widespread misinterpretation of the steps rule is a bigger issue than the one-off Joe Sheridan last minute goal against Louth.

I am not sure who will partner Shane O'Rourke in midfield. As far as I recall Conor Sheridan from Simonstown wasn't even on the panel on Saturday. Perhaps Menton. Menton hasn't exactly been setting the world alight at CHB. Maybe Kevin Reilly with Menton at FB and Harnan or Harrington at CHB.

I think that Meath should try a different approach on Sunday. We will probably lose no matter what strategy and I think we should try bringing a wing forward back into defence. I haven't seen the guys in training but I would pick Sheamus Kenny as a wing forward with an instruction to play in the space around half back and midfield to work on getting breaking balls.

Also the priority of the half forwards must be as a first line of defence so I would pick half forwards with that in mind.

Also, I would instruct Wallace to try and punch points if he comes close to goal.

Getting this thread rolling.

Hard to see beyond a routine win for Donegal considering that they had too much for Monaghan who annihilated Meath in the 2nd round. Added to that Meath managed to lose against a beatable Armagh side in navan and have picked up a few injuries.

As they say in betting circles you could put your house on Donegal. In the past Meath have had poor performances in the league that were rescued by some of the big guns like Colm O'Rourke, Giles, Geraghty etc but we have no players on the team that could be regarded as a leader or a player other counties look up to.

Not sure whether I will go, have a season ticket but the last two games have tested the loyalty and have a few things on next weekend.

As I wrote on the other thread we have serious problems all over the field but I feel that Mick O'Dowd needs to supplement the backroom team and rapidly develop a defensive strategy or the perceived developments will be lost.

Regarding Donegal, a win here will power them further towards promotion exactly where they want to at this stage of the year.

Can anyone see beyond a home win by 5 plus points?